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Happy with the results as of now. Of course the real quality of this class will not be known until 2013 or 2014 but, ESPN ranks the Gators class at #2 Rivals has us #3, so that is great coming off an 11 win season. As I have said before, Will Muschamp’s legacy will begin to be defined by how his players, in his system perform. And entering his third year, we will start to see how good his recruiting and coaching styles meld. We Gator fans know we always have talent, and we know what a great coach (Spurrier, Meyer) can do with that. We also know what mediocre coaches can do, (Zook). So, soon we will be able to see where Muschamp can take the Gators

With bland uniforms, a defense loaded with stalwarts and an offense predicated on smash-mouth football, Alabama remains one of the quintessentially old-school programs in college football.

In the Bowl Championship Series title game, the No. 2 Crimson Tide showed in their 21-0 victory over No. 1 Louisiana State on Monday night that there is still a place in the national elite for a throwback program in which ingenuity comes in the form of a play-action pass. In Alabama, which claimed its 14th national title in the first shutout in B.C.S. title-game history, they do not need to be reminded that football wins are not graded with style points and that touchdowns are overrated.

It was not pretty, nor particularly engaging, but Alabama’s suffocating defense, an effective performance by quarterback A J McCarron and five field goals by Jeremy Shelley helped the Crimson Tide (12-1) win their second national championship in the three years. Nick Saban became the first coach in the B.C.S. era to win three national titles; he also won one while coaching L.S.U. in 2003.

……………

The Alabama victory also gave the state its third consecutive national title — Auburn won last year — and the sixth straight national title for a team from the Southeastern Conference.

Alabama held L.S.U. (13-1) to one first down in the first half and 91 total yards. The senior quarterback Jordan Jefferson fumbled two snaps, averaged just 4.8 yards per completion and never got comfortable running the option. He finished 11 of 17 passing, but L.S.U. never found any rhythm, space or momentum.

L.S.U. won the these teams’ first meeting in overtime, 9-6, because stellar secondary play, elite special teams and an offense that did just enough. This time, it was the Alabama special teams that carried the night, with Shelley’s five field goals tying a record for all bowl games.

Trent Richardson added the exclamation point with a 34-yard touchdown run with 4 minutes 36 seconds to play. (Shelley missed the extra point.)

Alabama’s special teams led the way this time. Punter Cody Mandell kept the ball away from the L.S.U. star Tyrann Mathieu, Shelley hit five of seven field-goal attempts, and a 49-yard punt return midway through the first quarter by Marquis Maze allowed Alabama to corral the game’s momentum.

But it was Alabama’s smothering defense that provided the night’s indelible performance. L.S.U. looked as if it were running in quicksand, with Jefferson looking helpless on option plays and lost in the passing game. His offensive ineptitude was best summarized by one play in the third quarter in which, under pressure, he flipped a shovel pass that Alabama’s C. J. Mosley intercepted.

Jefferson tackled Mosley so hard that it resulted in Mosley’s leaving the game with a gruesome left leg injury, which required him to leave the field on a cart. Jefferson was not the only one frustrated. L.S.U. fans booed him and chanted for the backup Jarrett Lee, who began the season as L.S.U.’s starter before being benched the first game against Alabama.

McCarron orchestrated the Alabama game plan brilliantly. He had thrown a critical interception against L.S.U., and his best statistic on Monday night was that he avoided the big mistake. But he was far from a caretaker, finishing 23 of 34 for 233 yards. While he never found the end zone, McCarron threw aggressively downfield and often at Mathieu, whom Alabama clearly picked on at times.

L.S.U. could not find a spark on offense. The Tigers, one of the country’s dominant rushing teams, averaged 1.4 yards a carry. Alabama’s smothering front seven reduced talented tailbacks like Kenny Hilliard, Michael Ford and Spencer Ware to 23 yards on 12 carries.

Alabama came up with a pair of surprise stars. Receiver Kevin Norwood, who entered the game with seven catches on the season, caught four passes for 78 yards. Tight end Brad Smelley finished with seven catches for 39 yards, and was clearly a factor in the Alabama game plan to counter L.S.U.’s defensive speed.

Alabama took a 3-0 lead after Maze’s punt return set up Alabama at the L.S.U. 26. Alabama chipped away to set up a 23-yard field goal by Shelley, leading a cathartic roar from the Alabama faithful.

In the teams’ first meeting, on Nov. 5, neither team reached the end zone. Alabama was haunted by four missed field goals, three of them by the Tide’s long kicking specialist, Cade Foster. But his only role Monday came as a decoy on a fake punt.

Alabama came out aggressive early, with McCarron living up to his promise to play with more fire and emotion. His sweetest throw ended sourly for the Crimson Tide, when Smelley dropped a sweet lob pass in the second quarter that almost surely would have resulted in a touchdown. Instead, it slipped between his hands and Alabama settled for a 42-yard field-goal attempt after a deft fake field-goal attempt kept the drive alive.

But with the ball at the L.S.U. 25, Saban elected to go with his short kicking specialist, Shelley, on the cusp of his range, and Michael Brockers blocked the kick.

That gave L.S.U. fans flashbacks of the first meeting. The lack of touchdowns certainly looked familiar. But in Tuscaloosa, seasons are graded by whether the Tide win the national title.

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“These people are going to end up rioting about this,” says Sheila Tyson, a community activist in Jefferson County, Ala. “If they let this stuff happen they are going to get the biggest riot the South has ever seen . . . I can see it coming.”

That’s a pretty serious prediction. What could possibly start a riot that big?

She’s talking about the likelihood of Jefferson County increasing its water and sewage bill rates.

Oh. Is it really all that bad?

“If the sewer bill gets higher, my light might get cut off and if I try to catch up the light, my water might get cut off. So we’re in between. We can’t make it like this,” says Tammy Lucas, a Birmingham resident who has been affected by a “financial and political scandal that has brought one of the most deprived communities in America’s south to the point of what some local people believe is collapse,” reports theBBC.

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My beloved Gators have improved each week, and thrashed Kentucky 48-14 Saturday night. Trey Burton, doing a pretty good Tim Tebow impersonation, scored six TD’s, and now it is time to test the young Gators against the Tide.

It is a tall test, against the best team in the country. Frankly I do not see Florida beating Bama, yet. Bama does not make mistakes, does not commit stupid penalties, and will be very tough at home. My thought is that the Gators will continue to get better, and if they do, they will get a second shot at the Tide, in Atlanta in early December.

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Lance is a good guy, despite his questionable football tastes. And Lance has long had the hots for Danica Patrick. And hey, who can blame him? She has a bit of the bad girl vibe, incredible eyes, georgeous hair, and does bikini shoots well.

So, when Danica decided to do NASCAR, Lance swooned. So, Lance, tonights Daley Gator Daley Babe is for you

Lancenotes my saluteto him and accuses me of just doing this for hits? Excuse me sir? Would I do such a thing? I am shocked frankly.

Lance also ponders if Bama running back Mark Ingram will win the Heisman. Stacy McCain has been stumping for Ingram, even threatening togo Al Sharpton on America if Ingram does not win.

If Mark Ingram doesn’t win the Heisman Trophy, it’sracism. . . .
Both Tim Tebow and Corey Colt lost their shot at the Heisman Trophy [Saturday] night. Alabama’s never had a Heisman. If Mark Ingram doesn’t get the Heisman now, I’d join any Heisman protest Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would care to lead.

Personally, I think Ingram SHOULD win the award, but Stacy McCain should realize that if Ingram wins he will be the second Sophomore ever to win it. The first? Tim Tebow, who also has two, yes TWO national title under his belt. If Ingram does not win the Heiman? Failure! If his team loses to Texas? Double failure. Of course, Bama will uphold the superiority of the SEC. They will whip the Horns! And then, next year, they will assume their rightful position, behind the mighty Gators!

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Doug of The Daley Gator, Stacy of The Other McCain, and Carol of No Sheeples Here are having an intra-conference spat about the upcoming S.E.C. Championship game next week. Stacy and Carol are Alabama fans while Doug is a Florida fan. They seem to think that this game is tantamount to the national championship as they consider the S.E.C. to be the top conference in the nation.

What they fail to realize is that the B.C.S. computer model is the spittin’ image of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit’s anthropocentric global warming model program. It’s rigged to help the S.E.C. keep a high self-esteem.

Yep, that is right, the SEC IS the best conference in college football, and yes, we, as Stacy McCain notes are like a big family, we might hate each other, but, we do not take kindly to anyone else talking trash about us, yes, even a Gator fan like me, will defend Georgia, or Auburn, from a Pac-10 or Big Ten attack.

Allow me to continue blistering Steve: The Harris Poll has Florida topping the rankings at No.1 with Alabama coming in at No. 3, the Legends Poll ranks Alabama No.1 followed by Florida at No. 2 and the BCS Standings follows suit with the same placement in the rankings.

In none of the five polls mentioned above do Steve’s beloved Wisconsin Badgers appear. Steve and his brother Lance were crestfallen when Brett Favre left the Packers. This alone would account for his snarkiness regarding real football.

When Steve sought to stir the pot by saying there is no shortage of tools in the SEC, I think it is appropriate for me to point out that a cheesehead has no business calling anyone a “tool”, if you know what I mean and I think you do!

I don’t want to call Steve EVIL but I will IF I HAVE TO because we already know that Doug is EVIL. Stay classy, Steve old boy, stay classy.

Now, the whole “evil” comment is not hurtful, because I know it is delivered with SEC love. Just like I can say something like, how do you get a one-armed Bama fan out of a tree? You wave at them. See, a loving jab.

As a final indication of how SEC love works, I recall last year’s Cotton Bowl game, between Texas Tech, and Ole Miss Rebels. As the game wound down, and the Rebels fans began chanting “SEC, SEC, SEC…” The next day, the local sports talk station here in Dallas could not understand why Rebel fans would chant that. That is SEC love, we fight like Hell AGAINST each other, then root like Hell FOR each other against other conferences.

So, IF, Bama were to defeat Florida next Saturday, I would pull like Hell for the Tide to roll Texas. Likewise, WHEN we beat Bama, I know their fans will pull for us to dust the Horns! That is right Carol, you and RS McCain get your orange and blue pom poms out!

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Yes! GENIUS! Mr. McCain, as fierce an Alabama fan as I am a Gator fan suggests that he and I, and Carol at No Sheeples, who also screams “ROLL TIDE” , keep up our SEC style smack talking all week leading up to the Bama/Gator clash in Atlanta next Saturday.

Those two powers will play for the most coveted championship in America, the SEC championship, and also for the right to make steers out of the Teaxs Longhorns in the National Championship Game. You doubt, the dominance of the SEC? Well, ask Ohio State, or FSU, or Oklahoma, or Miami, they have all been crushed by SEC teams in past national title contests.

McCain points out the obvious reasons for this proposed smackfest. First it will get HITS! Second, it will agitate the Hell out of Auburn fans, who get sick when they think of Alabama playing in Atlanta. McCain hates Auburn, and who can blame him? I might add that it also irritates Volunteer and Bulldog fans, and LSU fans, and that is a huge bonus!

So, the lines are drawn, Let the smack talking start! And let the BIG GATOREAT!